Chicano Liberation Front

The Chicano Liberation Front was an underground revolutionary group in California, United States, that committed dozens of bombings and arson attacks in the Los Angeles area in the early 1970s. The radical militant group publicly claimed responsibility for 28 bombings between March 1970 and July 1971 in a taped message sent to the Los Angeles Free Press. Their targets were typically banks, schools and supermarkets. They also claimed responsibility for a bomb at Los Angeles City Hall. The Chicano Liberation Front was also more than likely responsible for explosions at a downtown federal building and at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice, although those incidents remain officially unsolved.
No one has ever publicly identified themselves as being a member of the Chicano Liberation Front. The closest law enforcement ever got to the CLF appears to have been a 19-year-old named Freddie De Larosa Plank, who was charged for an attempted arson at a high school, and for firebombing a U.S. Army Reserve building. The CLF claimed responsibility for the latter event in August 1971. The 1970s leftist radical bombings were generally difficult crimes to solve, and the CLF was apparently extremely cautious, close-knit, and ideologically sincere enough, that they avoided the catastrophic collapses of other paramilitaries of the era.
A 1975 Time magazine article reported that CLF was thought to have "at least 15 hardcore members." One history of American terrorism said it was typical of "small groups of revolutionaries" like the Chicano Liberation Front to give themselves grandiose names to project strength, even when their actual membership count was likely closer to that of a squad than an army. The CLF apparently had at least one female member, as a woman called in claims of responsibility for two bombings, and the voice on the 1971 recording sent to the Free Press was female.
Part of the larger Chicano/Latino racial-progress action, the group apparently sought "removal of police and other 'outside exploiters' from East Los Angeles" by use of revolutionary violence, in response to law-enforcement actions like the killing of the Sanchez cousins and the perceived suppression of Mexican-American political agitation. The "sectarian Marxist" orientation of CLF opposed the relatively more genteel activism of the Chicano Moratorium. The Chicano Liberation Front shared some ideological similarities with the Black power movement and American Indian Movement organizations of the same era, namely their vocal resistance to police brutality in the United States and their opposition to capitalist exploitation of the poor. Their use of "revolutionary" violence also placed them within a class of chaotic leftist entities that included the Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the New World Liberation Front, the Emiliano Zapata Unit, and the George Jackson Brigade. Some of the later actions claimed by or attributed to the Chicano Liberation Front may have been the acts of hardened criminals, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the New World Liberation Front, or mildly rebellious teenagers. The Chicano Movement, as a whole, was non-violent and modeled on the civil rights movement led by Martin [Luther King Jr.|Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.] Chicano Liberation Front terrorism was said to be the "exception that proved the rule."

History

The CLF of primary historic interest is the group, active in the Los Angeles area, "formed in 1970 and vanished by 1971." This was a period that was roughly bookended by the Chicano Moratorium anti-war protests of 1970 and the first anniversary of the death of Ruben Salazar. There were upward of 5,000 small-scale, mostly politically motivated, bombings in the United States beginning in 1968. The actions of the Chicano Liberation Front initially blended in to the near-daily headlines that something had exploded somewhere. The true beginnings of the Chicano Liberation Front remain obscure because of their secretive tendencies. The closest thing to a primary source on the origins of the CLF appears in a 2007 oral history produced by University of California, Los Angeles:
The phrase Chicano liberation front first appears in print as one of several general ideas generated at a Chicano community conference in Denver in March 1970.
On September 4, 1970, a bomb exploded at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice. The CLF never claimed responsibility for this bombing, but the recording sent to the Los Angeles Free Press had two unintelligible or erased descriptions of events that, if the Front spokeswoman was keeping to a chronological order, would have occurred between March 1970 and September 29, 1970. Furthermore, in Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice, Ian F. Haney López argues that the fictionalized bombing of the Hall of Justice in Oscar Acosta's Revolt of the Cockroach People broadly derives from real-world activities of the CLF. Acosta's narrative conflates the Hall of Justice bombing of 1970, which had no casualties, and the fatal consequences of the 1971 L.A. federal building bombing, and states that the intended target of the novel's Hall of Justice bomb was Superior Court Judge Arthur Alarcón.
The first public notice that the CLF even existed came with the April 1971 explosion of a bomb in the second-floor men's room at Los Angeles' landmark City Hall building. Future Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, then a city councilman, was seated away from the late-afternoon explosion. A woman made a call to the City News Service and repeated a phrase three times: "The bomb at City Hall is in memory of the Sanchez brothers...Chicano Liberation Front." Following the city hall bombing, a "police undercover agent" reportedly claimed that the group was "similar" to the Weather Underground, that it had been formed in Northern California in 1970, and that the group's membership in the Southern California area was "relatively small" but "hardcore."
File:Los Angeles Free Press 1971-05-28 Mad Bombers of L.A. cover story.jpg|thumb|"Mad Bombers of L.A." cover story, Los Angeles Free Press, issue 358, dated May 28 – June 3, 1971
In May 1971, Los Angeles County's primary alternative newspaper of the era, the Los Angeles Free Press, published a cover story called "The Mad Bombers of L.A." which featured a detailed list of notable bombings in the greater Los Angeles area since April 1970. The Free Press was well-known for calling out extrajudicial killings of civilians by law enforcement. Apparently this reputation, in combination with the bombing index compiled by reporter Michael Blake and persistent interview requests made by LAFP city editor Judie Lewellen, compelled the CLF to say their piece in the form of a recording.
The August 1971 tape, which listed a couple dozen bombings the group wanted credit for, pointedly does not mention the January 1971 explosion that killed 18-year-old part-time mail orderly Tomas Ortiz. Ortiz's death, if it was CLF, was the only death—and seemingly the only casualty of any kind—that could or would be attributed to the Chicano Liberation Front bombing spree. A 2000 analysis of patterns of domestic terrorism in the United States classified the death of Ortiz under "accidental and unintended," stating that some murders by terrorist groups were "clearly not intended" and included the killing of "a Chicano employee by the Chicano Liberation Front" as an example. The CLF statement also insisted that the overall lack of injuries or deaths resulting from their attacks was because the group's bombs were "carefully researched and accomplished. We would never jeopardize the life of any person, whoever he may be."
The spokeswoman also lectured the editors of the Los Angeles Free Press that if they were really the radical outlet they purported to be, they should educate themselves on the following people/cases:

Alfredo "Bear" Bryan
Trini Inglesias
Carnalismo Three
Freddie Plank

Per the Los Angeles Times citing law-enforcement sources, the first three were charged with various flavors of homicide, the last was a 19-year-old charged with firebombing an Eastside high school and, separately, a U.S. Army Reserve building. Freddie De Larosa Plank was arrested in April 1970 after he and three unidentified companions attempted to light the Lincoln High School (Los Angeles, California)|Lincoln High School] admin building on fire by shooting at a pile of gunpowder set on a gasoline-soaked office carpet. Otherwise in April 1970 Plank and another student, Jorge Rodriguez, were named as student leaders of a school reform movement at Roosevelt High School (Los Angeles, California)|Roosevelt High], both of whom had been expelled for failure to disperse during a demonstration. Plank and Rodriguez then set up Euclid High, a continuation school program for 50-odd students who had also been expelled.
In June 1971, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, the city's afternoon paper, received a phone call during which the Chicano Liberation Front claimed responsibility for a bomb placed at Roosevelt High in East Los Angeles. A police spokesman told the Associated Press at that time that the CLF claimed, in leaflets, to be "devoted to harassing police." A 2017 history of the school stated that the school's "R-Building" was the site of "small bombing events" and arson actions by the Chicano Liberation Front in the 1970s. The school was hit at least three times and while "no one was injured, damage to two main buildings required repairs."
File:TESSA_Digital_Collections_of_the_Los_Angeles_Public_Library_00095526_Herald_Examiner_HE_box_41_Bomb_rips_Roosevelt_High_School_1970-09-29.jpg|thumb|Police officer Peters inspects bomb damage at Roosevelt High on September 29, 1970; Roosevelt was one of CLF's most frequent targets. |left
August 1971 was the occasion of the first anniversary of the death of journalist Ruben Salazar, who had been struck in the temple by a tear-gas canister fired into a restaurant by a L.A. County sheriff's deputy at the National Chicano Moratorium March. Unrest was expected, and when interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, "More than one activist cited the bombings as the most extreme reflection of the bitterness felt by at least one small segment of East Los Angeles' Mexican-American community." The CLF distributed flyers advocating vigilante/guerrilla action, but as it happened, the anniversary of Salazar's death passed without incident.
In September 1971 a professor of human behavior told an Associated Press reporter that radical bombings in California were mostly perpetrated by bourgeois whites or "Mexican-Americans living up to a revolutionary tradition." A 1972 statement of the "national policies" of the Brown Berets specifically repudiated the Chicano Liberation Front: "Any Brown Beret who identifies as being part of the small scattered incidents of the Chicano Liberation Front is terminated."
Chicano Liberation Front bombing in Los Angeles seemed to cease with the close of 1971, but to this day, researchers "do not know why ended." In an idiosyncratic obituary of Chicano activist attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta written for Rolling Stone in 1977, Hunter S. Thompson articulated a strong impression that Acosta could have been directly involved in the Chicano Liberation Front bombings. He described the lawyer as someone who stayed up all night "eating acid and throwing Molotov cocktails" and then arrived for morning court on a waft of gasoline fumes, with "a green crust of charred soap-flakes" visible on his status-symbol snakeskin cowboy boots. Furthermore, Acosta had apparently written to Thompson in 1972 to the effect that: "I think I can make a pretty good argument that it was you, or God through you, that called a halt to the bombings...Which means that you'll be remembered as the Benedict Arnold of the cockroach revolt."
After 1971, CLF claims of responsibility were mostly for incidents that occurred outside of Los Angeles. These were likely distinct entities borrowing the name and some of the ideological messaging of the original. The New World Liberation Front in particular was an extremely prolific and chaotic terrorist "brand" that adapted a variety of personas original to other underground radicals of the era. Nonetheless, the name CLF appeared sporadically in crime reports until the middle of the decade. Some of the mid-1970s incidents for which the "Chicano Liberation Front" claimed responsibility included three Safeway bombs planted in Northern California in 1974, bombs planted around the Bay Area in 1975, a police substation bombing and incidents at two other locations in El Paso, Texas in 1975, and a clutch of Bank of America and Safeway bombings in the San Francisco area in early 1975. Following several explosions in Sacramento in 1975, a newspaper reported that "An inquiry is also expected into the series of bombings around this area for the last 18 months, most of them claimed by the so-called New World Liberation Front, but some by a group calling itself the Chicano Liberation Front." By the end of 1975, people stopped tossing dynamite on the roofs of banks in the name of the Chicano Liberation Front; a report on domestic terrorism happenings in February 1976 said the Chicano Liberation Front had "been silent for at least a year."
In one long-time Chicano activist's memoir, published in 2019, he recalled the CLF from a distance of almost 50 years: "The bombings were more symbolic than anything else; I do not remember that anyone was ever hurt. Buildings were damaged, including several banks, but not human life." One history says "it is impossible to rule out" FBI or LAPD false-flag action. The FBI case-file number for the Chicano Liberation Front was 105-209116.

Timeline

The following is not a list of Chicano Liberation Front bombings. There is little scholarship that examines the CLF outside of the general context of Chicano Movement, and there is no known publicly available list of confirmed CLF-attributed bombings; this is the case for several of the amorphous domestic terrorist groups of the era.
This is an incomplete timeline of bombings, fire bombings, burglaries and arson fires that appeared in news reports that referenced the CLF or CLF-associated people, events for which the CLF claimed responsibility, and events that were part of a series of otherwise unexplained events that correlate to known CLF or CLF-splinter-group actions. For example, the CLF claimed responsibility for one bombing in Fresno in 1972 but there were four previous, unattributed, unsolved bombings in Fresno that generally match the pattern of CLF action and that occurred during the general era when CLF flourished. The list also includes a small number of bombings that were suspected CLF actions for which the CLF specifically denied responsibility.
Coordinates used are for the front entrance of an event site unless additional specifics were included in news reports. Firebomb is used here as a shorthand for what is properly an incendiary device. '' Bomb is used to describe what is now called an improvised explosive device.
Event YYYY-MM-DD HHMM Day of week Location Street address Coordinates CLF claim of responsibility? Casualties Property damage Notes
Attempted burglary 1970-01-13 Tuesday Roosevelt High School 456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 0 Attempt to break in to Roosevelt Reserve Officer Training Corps weapons storage area
Burglary 1970-02-06 Friday Lincoln High School 3501 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 52 World War II-era M-1 rifles, and 10 "firing pins and extractors" stolen from ROTC armory area at school
Burglary 1970-02-12 Thursday Wilson High School (Los Angeles)|Wilson High School] 4500 Multnomah St, Los Angeles, CA 90032 0 Break-in and ransacking of Wilson ROTC weapons storage area; no weapons theft because ROTC instructor had shipped the guns to ROTC headquarters after hearing about the Roosevelt and Lincoln break-ins
Fire 1970-04-08 Wednesday Roosevelt High admin building 456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 0 $100,000
Fire 1970-04-15 Wednesday Roosevelt High one-story storage building 456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0
Fire 1970-04-20 Monday Board of Education admin building 1549 Norfolk St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0
Firebomb 1970-04-22 0230 Wednesday Bank of America branch Wabash Avenue and Sentinel Avenue, Boyle Heights 0 "Extensive" damage; estimated repair costs of $30,000 Three Molotov cocktails, one failed to ignite; "Three persons fleeing in an automobile moments after..."
Attempted arson 1970-04-27 Monday Lincoln High School attendance office 3501 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031 0 Janitor found four youths trying to light a fire; Freddie Plank was the only one apprehended, he was carrying a.22 which the suspects had been using to try to light a fire by shooting at gasoline and gunpowder poured on a rug
Suspected arson 1971-04-27 Monday Audubon Junior High storage building 4120 11th Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90008 0 $20,000
Suspected arson 1971-04-27 Monday Hooper Avenue Elementary School 1225 E 52nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90011 0 more than $20,000 damage
Firebomb 1970-04-27 Monday Bank of America branch 3475 Whittier Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90023 0 $2,500 to a teller's cage and bank records Molotov cocktail through rear door
Bomb 1970-05-10 Sunday Selective Service office 5828 Hollywood Blvd 0 $5,000 Bomb was "small, homemade"
Bomb 1970-05-28 Thursday Selective Service office Downtown Los Angeles 0 $1,000 Bomb was "homemade"
Bomb 1970-06-08 Monday Sheriff's station parking lot 7901 S Compton Ave, Compton, CA 90222 0 $5,000 damage to vehicles "Military-type grenade"
Attempted bombing 1970-07-26 Saturday Los Angeles Times building 202 W 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 0 - Black-powder bomb; no explosion at set time; placed in building foyer
Fake bomb 1970-09-04 Friday City of Commerce City Hall 2535 Commerce Way, Commerce, CA 90040 0 - "A fake bomb, a wrapping of La Raza newspapers and wire was found on the front steps of the City of Commerce City Hall this evening"
Bomb 1970-09-06 0052 Sunday Los Angeles Hall of Justice, sixth floor 211 W Temple St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 A call came in two minutes after the explosion saying there would be an explosion in three minutes; law enforcement wasn't sure if it was mistiming by bombers, a prank, or a coincidence 0 $10,000 damage, destroyed a staircase, destroyed a restroom, damaged a second restroom; "blew out" a by wall, "peeled back the ceiling like a tin can," and broke a water main Seemingly placed in a "metal pipe chest" in the stairway. The sixth floor was the district attorney's office; district attorney Evelle Younger appears in news photos inspecting bomb damage.
Bomb 1970-09-29 Tuesday Roosevelt High School 456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 "Little damage...due to poor placement"
Bomb 1970-10-31 Saturday U.S. Army induction center 1030 H St, Fresno, CA 93721 Unclaimed 0 "Considerable damage to the building's front" Dynamite used
Bomb 1970-10-31 Saturday Fresno Guide office 1963 H St, Fresno, CA 93721 Unclaimed 0 Newspaper printing plant; dynamite at front exploded simultaneously with induction center blast away, also on H St
Bomb 1970-11-05 Thursday Bank of America branch 7073 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90038 0 $50 Explosion "failed to penetrate roof"
Bomb 1971-01-01 Friday El Monte Municipal Courts Building 11301 Valley Blvd, El Monte, CA 91731 0 Broken windows, door damaged Small bomb placed at rear door
Attempted bombing 1971-01-22 Friday L.A. County welfare office 4900 Triggs St, Commerce, CA 90022 0 Dynamite bomb, placed at front door, discovered and disarmed
Bomb 1971-01-29 1630 Friday 1971 L.A. federal building bombing 300 N Los Angeles St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Unclaimed 1 Washbasins shattered, hole in wall, bathrooms on floors above and below damaged; "Thousands of dollars" Explosion killed Thomas Ortiz of City Terrace, a teenage orderly. Both of Ortiz's legs were blown off and he suffered "severe head injuries," dying en route to the hospital.
Bomb 1971-04-01 1455 Thursday Los Angeles City Hall, second floor men's bathroom 200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Phone call to City News Service; female caller repeated her statement three times: "The bomb at City Hall is in memory of the Sanchez brothers...Chicano Liberation Front." Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 Broken mirrors, broken water pipe, damaged sinks, damaged walls; $5,000 of damage, several thousand dollars" "Short, plump, young woman" seen leaving men's room; described as "about 20," wearing brown pants and a brown suede hat;
Bomb 1971-04-03 Saturday Bank of America branch 5057 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 $5,000 Same branch bombed again four days later
Bomb 1971-04-07 Tuesday Bank of America branch 5057 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019 0 "little damage" "low-charge explosive device"
Bomb 1971-04-08 0930 Thursday Fresno County Courthouse, seventh floor men's bathroom 1100 Van Ness Ave, Fresno, CA 93724 "Police said a man telephoned a few minutes later using the words bomb and Chicano Liberation Front. The operator said the man spoke very rapidly and she was unable to understand exactly what was said." 0 Stall doors destroyed bathroom entry door damaged, hole in wall, ceiling damage; debris entered steno pool room Bomb apparently "set in or near one of three toilet bowls"; "stocky, swarthy man wearing a dark sweater" seen in restroom before blast
Bomb 1971-04-16 Friday Selective Service office 7412 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90003 0 Gas and water lines ruptured, otherwise minor damage
Bomb 1971-04-20 Tuesday U.S. Army induction center 1030 H St, Fresno, CA 93721 Unclaimed 0 "Considerable damage to the building's front" Ammonium nitrate and petroleum used
Bomb 1971-04-23 0030 Friday California state parole board office Fresno – Possibly 5060 E Clinton Way, Fresno, CA 93727 0 hole in roof Bomb thought to have been tossed onto roof
Bomb 1971-04-28 Wednesday Bank of America branch 2430 N Broadway, Lincoln Heights, CA 90031 0
Bomb 1971-04-29 Thursday Bank of America branch 2430 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031 Hole in roof measures in diameter Black-powder bomb thrown on roof
Bomb 1971-04-30 2122 Friday Safeway store 3600 E Brooklyn Ave; since 1994, 3600 E Cesar E Chavez Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90063 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 hole in roof; damage estimated at less than $1,000
Bomb 1971-04-30 2200 Friday Bank of America branch 833 W Whittier Blvd, Montebello, CA 90640 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 Damage to ground and second floor "Black powder device, was placed at the bank's rear entrance located in an alley"
Bomb 1971-05-06 Thursday Chevron Chemical Co. building East Los Angeles Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 200 windows broken, Southern Pacific oil tank car damaged
Bomb 1971-05-08 Saturday L.A. County Department of Public Social Services building 2707 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 No damage estimate given
Firebomb 1971-05-08 Saturday Shopping Bag market Altadena, California Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0
Bomb 1971-05-11 Tuesday Glendale Federal Savings & Loan E 1st St Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0
Bomb 1971-05-12 Wednesday Bank of America branch Woodland Hills, Los Angeles Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0
Firebomb 1971-05-12 Wednesday Bank of America branch 20946 Devonshire St, Chatsworth, CA 91311 0 $1500 Flaming gallon jug of gasoline
Bomb 1971-06-03 Thursday Atlantic Savings & Loan 5301 E Whittier Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90022 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0 Blew dirt out of a planter
Bomb Unknown United California Bank El Sereno, California Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0
Bomb 1971-06-04 1730 Friday Roosevelt High 456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 Phone call to Los Angeles Herald-Examiner switchboard 0 Damaged lockers, broken windows, damaged door Two hours after school ended; bomb was placed in a locker; bomb "may have been attached to a timing device."
Bomb 1971-06 Joaquin Murieta Center, "federally funded college recruitment and placement center" East Los Angeles CLF: "We would like to dissociate ourselves" from the recent bombings of Spanish-language media outlets. 0
Bomb 1971-06-11 Friday KALI Hollywood, Los Angeles CLF: "We would like to dissociate ourselves" from the recent bombings of Spanish-language media outlets. 0 "Slightly damaged" Radio station bombings were about an hour apart
Bomb 1971-06-11 Friday KWKW Pasadena, CA CLF: "We would like to dissociate ourselves" from the recent bombings of Spanish-language media outlets. 0 "Slightly damaged" Radio station bombings were about an hour apart
Bomb 1971-06-13 Early Sunday KMEX Anonymous caller to newspaper 0 Campus police car wrecked
Bomb 1971-06-22 "Two hours after" CSLA bomb exploded Tuesday evening Lincoln High School 3501 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031 Anonymous caller to newspaper 0 "Heavy damage"; hole in floor Counselor's office in admin building
Bomb 1971-06-22 Tuesday evening Police patrol car reporting to Lincoln High bomb 3501 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031 Anonymous call to newspaper 0 Minor damage Placed underneath police car
Bomb 1971-06-23 2330 Wednesday Belvedere Junior High 312 N Record Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90063 0 One room destroyed, three rooms seriously damaged Placed on windowsill in "administration section"
Bomb 1971-07-02 "shortly after midnight" Friday 63rd Army Reserve Command 1350 San Pablo St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 Phone call to police before explosion female voice; call to Herald Examiner: "I want to tell you the Chicano Liberation Front bombed an armory in Lincoln Heights." 0 Glass door and 24 windows broken; door ripped off hinges, 20 windows broken "Crude pipe bomb"; Freddie Plank charged with "firebombing" the armory
Bomb 1971-07-04 Sunday IRS office, San Jose, California 0 $500,000 damage; large hole in ceiling of first-floor storeroom IRS investigator: "Probably made of amtho and dynamite"
Firebomb 1971-07-06 0019 Tuesday Montebello High School 2100 W. Cleveland Ave., Montebello, CA 90640 "Male Latin" called Los Angeles Times: "Take this down, we just bombed Montebello High." Also, "Based on calls received by various agencies in the Los Angeles area, police believed the bombing was the work of the Chicano Liberation Front." 0 Classroom destroyed by fire, several damaged; "entire wing of school suffered smoke and water damage" "Shoved can full of flammable liquid through a window"
Bomb 1971-07-08 Thursday U.S. Post Office 3641 E 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90023 Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971. 0
Bomb 1971-07-08 0147 Thursday Pan American National Bank 3626 E 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90063 No calls before or after 0 Door, front window broken by flying chair; $2,500 to $5,000 damage estimate Bomb left at rear door; pipe bomb with "unknown" explosive"
Bomb 1971-07-08 night Late Thursday U.S. Post Office 3641 E 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90023 Unidentified male caller to Los Angeles Herald-Examiner "Can you take a message?" Claimed CLF was responsible; also claimed an "Army recruiting car" was blown up but "the windows had been broken out with tire irons not explosives" 0 Windows broken
Bomb threat 1971-07-08 Thursday Los Angeles City Hall Bomb threat against city hall called into Herald Examiner but no bomb found
Bomb 1971-07-18 2222 Sunday Bank of America branch Monterey Park Unidentified caller phoned news agencies eight minutes after the explosion 0 Broken door, broken windows "dynamite explosion," placed at rear door; one of "more than 50" Bank of America branch bombings in California YTD
Firebomb 1971-10-30 Friday Oxnard High School 3400 W Gonzales Rd, Oxnard, CA 93036 0 $30,000 Graffiti of "CLF" initials, presumed to mean Chicano Liberation Front
Bomb 1972-04-03 Sunday U.S. Border Patrol office Unknown street address, Fresno, CA Letter sent to newspaper 0 Screen door blown off, main door undamaged, three windows broken Police surmised that the blast was the result of one stick of dynamite
Firebomb 1972-05-19 0215 Friday Valencia High School administration building 500 N Bradford St, Placentia, CA 92870 Unidentified caller stated that CLF had bombed the school 0 $1,000 "gasoline-filled soft drink bottles with cloth wicks"; the school principal said they had no beef with any "Chicano Liberation Front" and thought the attack was the work of "ordinary vandals"
Sniper attack 1974-06-11 Tuesday Assassination of William Cann at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church 703 C St, Union City, CA 94587 A week after the shooting, the San Francisco Chronicle'' received a mimeographed letter claiming that the Chicano Liberation Front was responsible for the shooting; two weeks after the shooting police started that the letter "could not be authenticated" and had no info on the shooting that was not public information 5 Chief Cann was hit twice and died two months later from his wounds; "four Chicanos were hurt during the attack"

Legacy
Per a 2014 U.S. Department of Homeland Security analysis of patterns of domestic terrorism in the United States, the Chicano Liberation Front was responsible for two percent of all terrorist attacks in the U.S. in 1970s. DHS attributes two deaths to the CLF, presumably referring to Tomas Ortiz and William Cann.
The Chicano Liberation Front is a lurking presence in "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan," Hunter S. Thompson's article about Los Angeles and the Chicano Movement after the death of Salazar, which was published in Rolling Stones April 29, 1971, issue and is anthologized in The Great Shark Hunt. Thompson's narrative ends at the time of the City Hall bombing, although Acosta appears as "Dr. Gonzo" in Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In any case, Thompson's perspective on law enforcement was not particularly in conflict with the CLF's antipathy to the local police:
The Chicano Liberation Front also plays a role in Acosta's roman à clef ''The Revolt of the Cockroach People. Acosta used a mix of invented and real names for the characters in Cockroach People—Hunter Thompson is "Stonewall," but L.A. city mayor Sam Yorty is Sam Yorty—without leaving behind a clear explanation of why or how he chose to name the players. His name for the female member of the ring who called in claims of responsibility is "Elena". Acosta's Cockroach People alter ego Buffalo Z. Brown describes members of the Chicano Liberation Front as vatos locos and states that they, in turn, think he is a "sheep" who is "being used," a capitalist pig, a traitor, and/or a Tío Taco.
In "The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat", Thompson's 1977 obit for Acosta, he off-handedly describes people who may have been associated with the CLF. While reminiscing about his concerns of law-enforcement infiltration in the period while he was reporting out the story that became "Strange Rumblings," Thompson addresses the by-then-long-dead Acosta : "How many of those bomb-throwing, trigger-happy freaks who slept on mattresses in your apartment were talking to the sheriff on a chili-hall pay phone every morning?" In the foreword to The Gonzo Letters, Volume II'', the historian David Halberstam argues that Thompson's work is instinctual, authentic and speaks to incontrovertible human truths, which does not necessarily mean that Thompson constructed his work solely out of literal facts.
The Chicano Liberation Front is also mentioned in an anti-war movement poem by Patricio Paiz called "En Memoria de Arturo Tijerina." The poet writes for a U.S. soldier from the Rio Grande Valley who was killed by a sniper two weeks after he arrived in South Vietnam in 1968. Over the course of the poem, Paiz aligns himself with both "generally rebellious individuals or causes," and the long history of Chicano resistance to oppression, following the line "I am the Chicano Liberation Front" with a despairing conclusion:

Event	YYYY-MM-DD	HHMM	Day of week	Location	Street address	Coordinates	CLF claim of responsibility?	Casualties	Property damage	Notes
Attempted burglary	1970-01-13		Tuesday	Roosevelt High School	456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033			0		Attempt to break in to Roosevelt Reserve Officer Training Corps weapons storage area
Burglary	1970-02-06		Friday	Lincoln High School	3501 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0	52 World War II-era M-1 rifles, and 10 "firing pins and extractors" stolen from ROTC armory area at school
Burglary	1970-02-12		Thursday	Wilson High School (Los Angeles)\|Wilson High School]	4500 Multnomah St, Los Angeles, CA 90032			0		Break-in and ransacking of Wilson ROTC weapons storage area; no weapons theft because ROTC instructor had shipped the guns to ROTC headquarters after hearing about the Roosevelt and Lincoln break-ins
Fire	1970-04-08		Wednesday	Roosevelt High admin building	456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033			0	$100,000
Fire	1970-04-15		Wednesday	Roosevelt High one-story storage building	456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0
Fire	1970-04-20		Monday	Board of Education admin building	1549 Norfolk St, Los Angeles, CA 90033		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0
Firebomb	1970-04-22	0230	Wednesday	Bank of America branch	Wabash Avenue and Sentinel Avenue, Boyle Heights			0	"Extensive" damage; estimated repair costs of $30,000	Three Molotov cocktails, one failed to ignite; "Three persons fleeing in an automobile moments after..."
Attempted arson	1970-04-27		Monday	Lincoln High School attendance office	3501 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031			0		Janitor found four youths trying to light a fire; Freddie Plank was the only one apprehended, he was carrying a.22 which the suspects had been using to try to light a fire by shooting at gasoline and gunpowder poured on a rug
Suspected arson	1971-04-27		Monday	Audubon Junior High storage building	4120 11th Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90008			0	$20,000
Suspected arson	1971-04-27		Monday	Hooper Avenue Elementary School	1225 E 52nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90011			0	more than $20,000 damage
Firebomb	1970-04-27		Monday	Bank of America branch	3475 Whittier Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90023			0	$2,500 to a teller's cage and bank records	Molotov cocktail through rear door
Bomb	1970-05-10		Sunday	Selective Service office	5828 Hollywood Blvd			0	$5,000	Bomb was "small, homemade"
Bomb	1970-05-28		Thursday	Selective Service office	Downtown Los Angeles			0	$1,000	Bomb was "homemade"
Bomb	1970-06-08		Monday	Sheriff's station parking lot	7901 S Compton Ave, Compton, CA 90222			0	$5,000 damage to vehicles	"Military-type grenade"
Attempted bombing	1970-07-26		Saturday	Los Angeles Times building	202 W 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90012			0	-	Black-powder bomb; no explosion at set time; placed in building foyer
Fake bomb	1970-09-04		Friday	City of Commerce City Hall	2535 Commerce Way, Commerce, CA 90040			0	-	"A fake bomb, a wrapping of La Raza newspapers and wire was found on the front steps of the City of Commerce City Hall this evening"
Bomb	1970-09-06	0052	Sunday	Los Angeles Hall of Justice, sixth floor	211 W Temple St, Los Angeles, CA 90012		A call came in two minutes after the explosion saying there would be an explosion in three minutes; law enforcement wasn't sure if it was mistiming by bombers, a prank, or a coincidence	0	$10,000 damage, destroyed a staircase, destroyed a restroom, damaged a second restroom; "blew out" a by wall, "peeled back the ceiling like a tin can," and broke a water main	Seemingly placed in a "metal pipe chest" in the stairway. The sixth floor was the district attorney's office; district attorney Evelle Younger appears in news photos inspecting bomb damage.
Bomb	1970-09-29		Tuesday	Roosevelt High School	456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0	"Little damage...due to poor placement"
Bomb	1970-10-31		Saturday	U.S. Army induction center	1030 H St, Fresno, CA 93721		Unclaimed	0	"Considerable damage to the building's front"	Dynamite used
Bomb	1970-10-31		Saturday	Fresno Guide office	1963 H St, Fresno, CA 93721		Unclaimed	0		Newspaper printing plant; dynamite at front exploded simultaneously with induction center blast away, also on H St
Bomb	1970-11-05		Thursday	Bank of America branch	7073 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90038			0	$50	Explosion "failed to penetrate roof"
Bomb	1971-01-01		Friday	El Monte Municipal Courts Building	11301 Valley Blvd, El Monte, CA 91731			0	Broken windows, door damaged	Small bomb placed at rear door
Attempted bombing	1971-01-22		Friday	L.A. County welfare office	4900 Triggs St, Commerce, CA 90022			0		Dynamite bomb, placed at front door, discovered and disarmed
Bomb	1971-01-29	1630	Friday	1971 L.A. federal building bombing	300 N Los Angeles St, Los Angeles, CA 90012		Unclaimed	1	Washbasins shattered, hole in wall, bathrooms on floors above and below damaged; "Thousands of dollars"	Explosion killed Thomas Ortiz of City Terrace, a teenage orderly. Both of Ortiz's legs were blown off and he suffered "severe head injuries," dying en route to the hospital.
Bomb	1971-04-01	1455	Thursday	Los Angeles City Hall, second floor men's bathroom	200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012		Phone call to City News Service; female caller repeated her statement three times: "The bomb at City Hall is in memory of the Sanchez brothers...Chicano Liberation Front." Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0	Broken mirrors, broken water pipe, damaged sinks, damaged walls; $5,000 of damage, several thousand dollars"	"Short, plump, young woman" seen leaving men's room; described as "about 20," wearing brown pants and a brown suede hat;
Bomb	1971-04-03		Saturday	Bank of America branch	5057 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0	$5,000	Same branch bombed again four days later
Bomb	1971-04-07		Tuesday	Bank of America branch	5057 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019			0	"little damage"	"low-charge explosive device"
Bomb	1971-04-08	0930	Thursday	Fresno County Courthouse, seventh floor men's bathroom	1100 Van Ness Ave, Fresno, CA 93724		"Police said a man telephoned a few minutes later using the words bomb and Chicano Liberation Front. The operator said the man spoke very rapidly and she was unable to understand exactly what was said."	0	Stall doors destroyed bathroom entry door damaged, hole in wall, ceiling damage; debris entered steno pool room	Bomb apparently "set in or near one of three toilet bowls"; "stocky, swarthy man wearing a dark sweater" seen in restroom before blast
Bomb	1971-04-16		Friday	Selective Service office	7412 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90003			0	Gas and water lines ruptured, otherwise minor damage
Bomb	1971-04-20		Tuesday	U.S. Army induction center	1030 H St, Fresno, CA 93721		Unclaimed	0	"Considerable damage to the building's front"	Ammonium nitrate and petroleum used
Bomb	1971-04-23	0030	Friday	California state parole board office	Fresno – Possibly 5060 E Clinton Way, Fresno, CA 93727			0	hole in roof	Bomb thought to have been tossed onto roof
Bomb	1971-04-28		Wednesday	Bank of America branch	2430 N Broadway, Lincoln Heights, CA 90031			0
Bomb	1971-04-29		Thursday	Bank of America branch	2430 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031				Hole in roof measures in diameter	Black-powder bomb thrown on roof
Bomb	1971-04-30	2122	Friday	Safeway store	3600 E Brooklyn Ave; since 1994, 3600 E Cesar E Chavez Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90063		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0	hole in roof; damage estimated at less than $1,000
Bomb	1971-04-30	2200	Friday	Bank of America branch	833 W Whittier Blvd, Montebello, CA 90640		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0	Damage to ground and second floor	"Black powder device, was placed at the bank's rear entrance located in an alley"
Bomb	1971-05-06		Thursday	Chevron Chemical Co. building	East Los Angeles		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0	200 windows broken, Southern Pacific oil tank car damaged
Bomb	1971-05-08		Saturday	L.A. County Department of Public Social Services building	2707 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0	No damage estimate given
Firebomb	1971-05-08		Saturday	Shopping Bag market	Altadena, California		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0
Bomb	1971-05-11		Tuesday	Glendale Federal Savings & Loan	E 1st St		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0
Bomb	1971-05-12		Wednesday	Bank of America branch	Woodland Hills, Los Angeles		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0
Firebomb	1971-05-12		Wednesday	Bank of America branch	20946 Devonshire St, Chatsworth, CA 91311			0	$1500	Flaming gallon jug of gasoline
Bomb	1971-06-03		Thursday	Atlantic Savings & Loan	5301 E Whittier Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90022		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0		Blew dirt out of a planter
Bomb	Unknown			United California Bank	El Sereno, California		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0
Bomb	1971-06-04	1730	Friday	Roosevelt High	456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033		Phone call to Los Angeles Herald-Examiner switchboard	0	Damaged lockers, broken windows, damaged door	Two hours after school ended; bomb was placed in a locker; bomb "may have been attached to a timing device."
Bomb	1971-06			Joaquin Murieta Center, "federally funded college recruitment and placement center"	East Los Angeles		CLF: "We would like to dissociate ourselves" from the recent bombings of Spanish-language media outlets.	0
Bomb	1971-06-11		Friday	KALI	Hollywood, Los Angeles		CLF: "We would like to dissociate ourselves" from the recent bombings of Spanish-language media outlets.	0	"Slightly damaged"	Radio station bombings were about an hour apart
Bomb	1971-06-11		Friday	KWKW	Pasadena, CA		CLF: "We would like to dissociate ourselves" from the recent bombings of Spanish-language media outlets.	0	"Slightly damaged"	Radio station bombings were about an hour apart
Bomb	1971-06-13	Early	Sunday	KMEX	Anonymous caller to newspaper	0	Campus police car wrecked
Bomb	1971-06-22	"Two hours after" CSLA bomb exploded	Tuesday evening	Lincoln High School	3501 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031		Anonymous caller to newspaper	0	"Heavy damage"; hole in floor	Counselor's office in admin building
Bomb	1971-06-22		Tuesday evening	Police patrol car reporting to Lincoln High bomb	3501 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031		Anonymous call to newspaper	0	Minor damage	Placed underneath police car
Bomb	1971-06-23	2330	Wednesday	Belvedere Junior High	312 N Record Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90063			0	One room destroyed, three rooms seriously damaged	Placed on windowsill in "administration section"
Bomb	1971-07-02	"shortly after midnight"	Friday	63rd Army Reserve Command	1350 San Pablo St, Los Angeles, CA 90033		Phone call to police before explosion female voice; call to Herald Examiner: "I want to tell you the Chicano Liberation Front bombed an armory in Lincoln Heights."	0	Glass door and 24 windows broken; door ripped off hinges, 20 windows broken	"Crude pipe bomb"; Freddie Plank charged with "firebombing" the armory
Bomb	1971-07-04		Sunday	IRS office, San Jose, California				0	$500,000 damage; large hole in ceiling of first-floor storeroom	IRS investigator: "Probably made of amtho and dynamite"
Firebomb	1971-07-06	0019	Tuesday	Montebello High School	2100 W. Cleveland Ave., Montebello, CA 90640		"Male Latin" called Los Angeles Times: "Take this down, we just bombed Montebello High." Also, "Based on calls received by various agencies in the Los Angeles area, police believed the bombing was the work of the Chicano Liberation Front."	0	Classroom destroyed by fire, several damaged; "entire wing of school suffered smoke and water damage"	"Shoved can full of flammable liquid through a window"
Bomb	1971-07-08		Thursday	U.S. Post Office	3641 E 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90023		Claim of responsibility on recording sent to Freep in August 1971.	0
Bomb	1971-07-08	0147	Thursday	Pan American National Bank	3626 E 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90063		No calls before or after	0	Door, front window broken by flying chair; $2,500 to $5,000 damage estimate	Bomb left at rear door; pipe bomb with "unknown" explosive"
Bomb	1971-07-08	night	Late Thursday	U.S. Post Office	3641 E 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90023		Unidentified male caller to Los Angeles Herald-Examiner "Can you take a message?" Claimed CLF was responsible; also claimed an "Army recruiting car" was blown up but "the windows had been broken out with tire irons not explosives"	0	Windows broken
Bomb threat	1971-07-08		Thursday	Los Angeles City Hall						Bomb threat against city hall called into Herald Examiner but no bomb found
Bomb	1971-07-18	2222	Sunday	Bank of America branch	Monterey Park		Unidentified caller phoned news agencies eight minutes after the explosion	0	Broken door, broken windows	"dynamite explosion," placed at rear door; one of "more than 50" Bank of America branch bombings in California YTD
Firebomb	1971-10-30		Friday	Oxnard High School	3400 W Gonzales Rd, Oxnard, CA 93036			0	$30,000	Graffiti of "CLF" initials, presumed to mean Chicano Liberation Front
Bomb	1972-04-03		Sunday	U.S. Border Patrol office	Unknown street address, Fresno, CA		Letter sent to newspaper	0	Screen door blown off, main door undamaged, three windows broken	Police surmised that the blast was the result of one stick of dynamite
Firebomb	1972-05-19	0215	Friday	Valencia High School administration building	500 N Bradford St, Placentia, CA 92870		Unidentified caller stated that CLF had bombed the school	0	$1,000	"gasoline-filled soft drink bottles with cloth wicks"; the school principal said they had no beef with any "Chicano Liberation Front" and thought the attack was the work of "ordinary vandals"
Sniper attack	1974-06-11		Tuesday	Assassination of William Cann at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church	703 C St, Union City, CA 94587		A week after the shooting, the San Francisco Chronicle'' received a mimeographed letter claiming that the Chicano Liberation Front was responsible for the shooting; two weeks after the shooting police started that the letter "could not be authenticated" and had no info on the shooting that was not public information	5		Chief Cann was hit twice and died two months later from his wounds; "four Chicanos were hurt during the attack"